Energy-Aware Self-Stabilization in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: A Multicasting Case Study

Dynamic networks, e.g. Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), call for adaptive protocols that can tolerate topological changes due to nodes' mobility and depletion of battery power. Also proactivity in these protocols is essential to ensure low latency. Self-stabilization techniques for distributed systems provide both adaptivity and proactivity to make it suitable for the MANETs. However, energy-efficiency - a prime concern in MANETs with battery-powered nodes - is not guaranteed by self-stabilization. In this paper, we propose a node-based energy metric that minimizes the energy consumption of the multicast tree by taking into account the overhearing cost. We apply the metric to Self-Stabilizing Shortest Path Spanning Tree (SS-SPST) protocol to obtain energy-aware SS-SPST (SS-SPST-E). Using simulations, we study the energy-latency tradeoff by comparing SS-SPST-E with SS-SPST and other MANET multicast protocols, such as ODMRP and MAODV.